The 2012 Iowa caucuses may produce the narrowest margin of victory in history for the Republican contest there, with Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum vying for the top spot in the first nominating event of the presidential election. With 92% of precincts reporting as of 10:21 p.m. Central Time, Romney and Santorum were separated by just 13 votes, each just under 25% of the total vote. The closest GOP contest in the history of Iowa's leadoff contest was 1980, when George H. W. Bush edged Ronald Reagan 31.6%-29.5%.

Michele Bachmann delivered her closing argument Monday, but there were precious few voters around to hear it. The presidential candidate, who isn't expected to be among the top finishers in the Iowa caucuses, kept a light schedule. A day before the caucuses, while Ron Paul rallied a packed ballroom in Des Moines and Rick Santorum played to bigger and bigger crowds, Bachmann toured a series of small storefronts west of the city. Her first stop, a small diner, was so jam-packed with cameras, reporters and a smattering of customers that an aide warned that Bachmann herself wouldn't be able to come in unless some of the media moved behind the lunch counter.

Casting the Iowa caucuses as a referendum on clean politics, Newt Gingrich urged Republicans today to ignore millions of dollars in attack ads and send a message by resurrecting his flagging presidential campaign. "Send a signal we are sick of negative politics, we are sick of cynical consultants," Gingrich told a crowd of about 200 people gathered in a drafty construction maintenance shop in Walford, in east-central Iowa. Gingrich, who briefly claimed the lead in Iowa and some national opinion surveys, has sunk over the last few weeks beneath the weight of millions of dollars in advertising that portrays him as feckless, reckless and ethically tainted.

Facing weak poll numbers and the very real possibility of a bottom-tier finish in Iowa's kickoff caucuses, Rick Perry on Monday likened the 2012 Republican presidential contest to a marathon that was still in its first mile. Speaking to supporters in the faux-rustic lobby of a modern hotel near the banks of the Missouri River, Perry said the early stages of a long race are often misleading, and he predicted that other candidates would "hit the wall" later on. A distance runner before being slowed by back problems, the Texas governor said, "I finished my marathon, and I expect to finish this marathon as well.

For Ron Paul's supporters, the throng that greeted them at a hotel ballroom Monday was more than cause for excitement. It was a moment of vindication, or even, some thought, the start of something very big. "This is the beginning of the second revolution," said Monte Goodyk, 37, of the 800-person hamlet of Sully, Iowa. Four years ago, Goodyk campaigned for Mitt Romney, made calls for him. But then a friend turned him on to Paul. And that was that. "Liberty. It's about small government," Goodyk said as he stared at the gathering of about 500 and the banks of cameras from national and international TV networks.

Adding an unpredictable element to the presidential contest in Iowa, some disaffected Democratic voters are planning to switch sides and cast Republican ballots in Tuesday's caucuses. Caucus rules limit participation to registered party members. But anyone who shows up at a Republican caucus — including Democrats, independents and libertarians — can join the GOP or switch their party affiliation on the spot. Rep. Ron Paul, in a tight race for first place in Iowa with Mitt Romney, is perhaps the most likely to benefit from Democratic crossovers.

The Iowa caucuses are one week away - and if you're looking for clarity in the race for the GOP presidential nomination, you've come to the wrong place. Indeed, the bigger fear here is that the storied caucuses could be rendered politically irrelevant if Ron Paul should pull out a win next week, which remains entirely within the realm of possibility. Paul, who returns to the state on Wednesday, could stand to benefit from a fractured Republican electorate, with social conservatives splintered behind an array of candidates and Mitt Romney still facing skepticism from voters searching for an alternative.

Iowa State junior Jeremy Freeman is juggling final exams in ecology and invertebrate biology along with a tough assignment from a presidential campaign: find supporters willing to stand up and deliver a persuasive pitch for Newt Gingrich at the caucuses next month. Recruiting "somebody who can get up there in front of people and speak will be very difficult," said Freeman, the Gingrich campaign chairman in Story County, one of the most populous in the state. At the moment, he has enlisted a Gingrich backer in about a dozen of the county's 43 caucus sites, mainly churches, schools and other public buildings, and he hopes to locate about a dozen more in coming days.

For months, GOP candidates have bounced up and down in the polls in confounding gyrations. All the while, Ron Paul has plodded along, largely ignored outside the state but steadily holding his own. As the January caucuses near, Paul has been drawing big crowds, far larger than those of his opponents, often on college campuses where his backers are drawn by his quirky and caustic assaults on the Federal Reserve and American intervention abroad....

Herman Cain may have left the Republican presidential campaign but his candidacy will live on in Iowa the night of the Jan. 3 caucuses. Cain's name remains on the Iowa ballot -- the caucus vote is actually a non-binding presidential poll -- because he dropped out after the list was finalized by state GOP officials. This isn't the first time that's happened. Duncan Hunter was similarly listed during the 2008 caucuses, even though he too had ended his campaign before Iowans opening the voting for the presidential nomination. The Republican congressman from California wound up with just over 500 caucus votes (out of nearly 120,000 cast statewide)